Grain-door for freight-cars.



11039597. Patented Dec. I9; I899. E. w. MOBTEN.

GRAIN 000B FOR FREIGHT CARS.

(Application filed May 26, 1899.)

(No Model.)

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UNITED STATES PATENT EEicE.

GRAIN-DOOR FOR FREIGHT-CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 639,597, dated December 19, 1899. Application filed May 25, 1899. $erial No. 718,220. (No model.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD W. MORTEN, of Farmersville, in the county of Collin and State of Texas, have invented a new and Improved Grain-Door for Freight-Oars, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of my invention is to provide an inside door for freight-cars capable of being conveniently manipulated and which will act to effectually prevent any waste of grain, but which may be raised to permit a run of grain between the bottom of the door and floor of the car.

Another object of the invention is to provide an inside door and casing for grain-cars that may be quickly and economically set up and taken down when not needed.

The invention consists in the novel construction and combination of the several parts, as will be hereinafter fully set forth, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forminga part of this specification, in which similar characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure l is a longitudinal section through I a freight-car, illustrating the improved graindoor in side elevation, parts of the casing for the door being broken away and the door being shown as closed. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section through a portion of a grain-car, illustrating the door as partially open; and Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken substantially on the line 3 3 of Fig. 1.

A represents a freight-car, and A the dooropening thereof. Two uprights 10 and 1O are located one at each side of the door-opening A, which uprights are separated from the sides of the car by suitable blocks or beams 11, so. as to provide spaces 12 between the sides of the car and the said uprights 10 and 10. A third upright 12 is connected with the upright 10 by the spacing-beams 11 and by a bottom connecting-beam 13, that rests upon the floor of the car. A corresponding bottom beam or block 13 is provided for the upright 10, serving a similar purpose to that of the upper block or beam 11. The bottom beam 13, which connects the uprights 10 and 12, is provided with a series of frictionrollers 14 in its upper surface, and the space between the two uprights 10 and 12" is normally closed by a door 15, provided with a locking-button 15 or its equivalent.

An upper horizontal beam 16 is secured to the inner face of the side of the car at which the uprights 10 and 12 are erected, and this upper beam 16, which is in the nature of a track, is provided with friction-rollers 17in its upper surface. is placed below the upper track-beam 16, parallel therewith, and a third track-beam 19 is located between the beam 18 and the bottom beam 13, as shown in Fig. 1, all these beams except the bottom beam being secured to the inner face of the car. Corresponding short beams are located between the inner side of the car and the upright 10. These short track-beams are designated as 16, 18, and 19*.

The inner faces at the ends of the upper track-beams 16 and 16 at the door-opening A are vertically beveled, as shown at 20 in Fig. 3, as are likewise the corresponding surfaces of the bottom beams 13 and 13, as shown also at 21 in Fig. 3.

The door is preferably made in two sections B and B, and one section of the door is adapted to rest upon the upper surface of the other section, and where the two sections of the door connect an interlocking or overlapping joint 22 is provided. The upper section B of the door is narrower than the lower section B, and said upper section is provided with a horizontal batten 23 upon its front face at the top, which batten at its ends is beveled for engagement with the beveled surfaces of the upper track-beams 16 and 16. The larger and lower section B of the door is provided at its front with an upper horizontal batten 23, that extends beyond its upper edge, an intermediate horizontal batten 24, and a lower horizontal batten 25, the latter batten being beveled atits ends to engage with the beveled surfaces 21 of the lower track-beams 13 and 13 Thus when the sections of the doors are closed one upon the other and are in engagement with the various track-beams the inclined upper and lower surfaces of the track-bean1s and battens will force the door inward to a firm engagement with the yielding strips 26, that are in the nature of weather-strips, thus A second track-beam 18 eflfectually preventing any of the grain in the car working out of the car when the door is closed.

In operation when the door is to be opened the upper smaller section B is raised and is made to rest upon the upper friction-rollers 17, as shown in Fig. 2, and the lower section B is likewise elevated, and its bottom edge is brought in engagement with the friction-rollers 11L. Thus it will be observed that the two sections of the door may be carried back between the side of the ear and the casing comprising the uprights 10 and 12 in a manner to effectually uncover the door-opening A of the car.

hen the car is to be emptied of its contents, the door in its entirety may be pried upward, so as to leave a space between its bottom edge and the floor of the car for the escape of grain, and this is readily accomplished by pivoting on the door-jambs proper of the car levers 27, which are pivoted to said jambs by pins 28, passed through slots 29 in said levers, and the inner ends of the levers,

as shown in Fig. 3, are adapted to be brought beneath the intermediate battens 24 of the lower section B of the door, and the lovers after. they have been utilized for 'aising the inner door may be secured in any desired manner. lVhen the doors are closed, they are held closed by blocks 30 or their equivalents, that are pivotally attached to the inner ends of the upper beams 11 of the innerstructure of the car, as shown in Fig. 1, the blocks 30 being attached to said beams by hinges 31 or their equivalents; but each block is preferably provided with a hook 32 and a bolt 33, the bolts being adapted to enter keepers carried by the upper section B of the door. When the inner door is to be opened, these locking-blocks 30 are disconnected from the upper section B of the door and are carried up to the horizontal position shown in Fig. 2, and the hooks 32 of the blocks are made to engage with a rod 34, that extends from one spacing-beam 11 to the other, as is also shown in Fig. 2. The added structure-namely, the uprights 10 and 10 and the upright 12 and their connectionsis secured to the sides of the car by means of screws, bolts, or their equivalents, and thus this added structure maybe quickly removed and quickly placed in position whenever desired, and consequently does not constitute a fixture on the car.

The door 15 is intended to expose the track beams 13, 16, 18, and 19, so that any grain that may possibly lodge on said beams may be removed in a convenient manner, and thus prevent any interference with the sliding movement of the sections B and B of the door.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- 1. The combination with a freight-car having a door-opening and having two trackbeams mounted at one side of the door-open ing, of a grain-door made in two sections, the sections being arranged one above the other and being fitted in the door-opening, the upper section resting on the lower section and the lower section resting on the sill, and both sections when in the operative position being below the respective track-beams, and blocks hingedly mounted on the car and adapted to engage the upper section of the grain-door to hold the same in operative position, the graindoorsections being movable when disengaged from the blocks upward and sidewise upon the respective track-beams.

2. A railway-car, having a door-opening therein and also having two track-beams located adjacentto the Ixdoor-opening at one side thereof, a-nd'a grain-door formed in two sections arranged one above the other, the upper section bearing out the lower section, and the lower section bearing on the sill of the car, the sections of the grain-door being arranged below the respective track-beams when the grain-door is in oferative position, and being movable upwar ly and sidewise upon the track-beams to inactive or open position.

3. In a railway-car, the combination with the car having a door-opening therein and having track-beams arranged horizontally one above the other at one side of the door, of a grain-door formed in two sections arranged one above the other, the upper section being rested on the lower section and the lower section being rested on the sill when the doors are in operative position, the doors normally lying below the respective track-beams and being movable upwardly and sidewise to run on the track-bean1s, blocks hingedly mounted on the car and adapted to bear down on the grain-door to hold the same in closed or oper ative position, hooks carried by the blocks, and a rod mounted horizontally on the car above the blocks and serving to be engaged by the hooks thereof to hold the blocks raised in inactive position.

EDWARD NV, MORTEN.

Witnesses:

HENRY M. TAYLOR, R0131. W. BIKE. 

